OPINION: Keyboard warriors, back off

Small businesses need support from those that share the same town

Frances Klein. Photo Renee Pilcher / The Gympie Times. Picture: Renee Pilcher

SUPPORT local. These are two words that have been rolled off the tongue so many times they have lost their impact.

But for the many hundreds of small business in the Gympie region they mean everything.

Small businesses need support from those that share the same town, not just financially but in other ways too. Small businesses have become fair game from a small, but vocal few.

Whether it's customers who are unhappy with the smell of a place or the portion size of a serving, it seems acceptable for people to pump their keyboard-worn fingers up and down to express their displeasure on social media rather than deal with the problem in person.

Harsh comments spread like wildfire on a windy September day, and the reputation of a business can be tarnished in not much time at all.

The Gympie Cinema recently experienced this form of review, but fought fire with fire and used the same platform to deliver a letter of defence.

It worked; and they had the chance to show the many customers who went through their doors what they were about.

Businesses should be held accountable by the public they serve, but not through a keyboard.